ELN and Colombian Government Negotiate Ceasefire in Havana

Delegations from the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) have begun talks in Havana, Cuba to negotiate a new ceasefire, as part of the new peace dialogues that restarted last week.

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A statement released by the dialogue committee on Friday said: "Today we have formally created the Technical Committee that will work to design a new ceasefire."

The committee will be comprised of negotiators from the ELN and the Colombian government.

"The advancements made toward a new ceasefire will be reported to the Episcopal Conference of Colombia, and the Verification Mission of the United Nations," the statement continued.

The negotiators also focused on women's rights and ensuring women's participation in the process.

"The objective is that the process going forward in the dialogues develops a strong focus on women's rights, maximizing their participation, and learns from the experiences of the FARC peace process in this sense," the statement concluded.

Guerrilla movements, such as the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and ELN, have long had large numbers of women among their ranks.

Although they were successful, the start of the day's dialogues were overshadowed by the tragic plane crash in Cuba which killed at least 110 people. ELN chief negotiator Pablo Beltran began the session by expressing his "solidarity with Cuba after the tragic aerial accident in Havana," according to the ELN's Twitter account.